Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 67

Win a Copy of "The Wild Man" Fable and "Wild Mountain Tribe" by Zeke Pipher

This Spring, I finally had the privilege of meeting Zeke Pipher in person. He came to Pennsylvania to speak at our church's Wild Game Dinner. Zeke and I had been online friends for a few years as fellow EFCA pastors with mutual friends, and I'd been an admirer of his books for hyper-hobbied and outdoorsmen, but we'd never gotten to meet face-to-face.

We hit it off right away.
And right off the bat, one of the issues we connected on was the need to pass on godly masculinity to the next generation. I have 3 sons (and a daughter who will be an adult before too long!), so it's deeply important to me. The world offers so many false messages about manhood, and they are all not only flawed but dangerous.

So Zeke told me about a project he was working on--a fable that teaches about Christ-centered masculinity through an allegorical story and also a guidebook for men and young men to go through together. He even gave me pre-publication copies to review.

I like them a lot!

These are two books not quite like any others out there, and I think they would help any dads, granddads, or uncle-types who wanted to get some good principles of biblical masculinity across to the young bucks whom they care about.

Tomorrow on Independence Day, I'll be publishing an interview I did with Zeke all about how and why he wrote these two books.

Win A Set for Yourself

Today, I'm offering starting a contest to win a free set. Zeke will send a copy of each book to the winner picked at random.

Entering this contest is very simple:

1. Leave a comment on this post (either here or on Facebook) with your name on it.

2. Wait to see if you win. I'll be drawing the names out of a hat. It's that easy! (Don't forget to check back or subscribe to updates to find out if you win--I'll need your mailing address if you do.)

You can also increase your chances of winning by posting about this contest on your social media page (FB, Twitter, Blog, Pinterest, etc.). Just send me an email or leave a comment with the link so that I know that you've expanded the reach of the contest. For each time you link to the contest, you get your name added to the hat one more time (limit of 7 chances, the contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Thursday night, July 6th).

I'll announce the winner on Friday.

But if you can't wait, order your copy of  The Wild Man  and/or  Wild Mountain Tribe  today!

This video from Zeke's Wild Mountain website tells the story of what these books are all about.

Godforsaken

All three messages from the short series on the sufferings prefigured in David, fulfilled in Jesus, and vindicated by the resurrection preach in the Spring of 2017.

1. Godforsaken: David

2. Godforaken: Jesus

3. Forsaken No Longer

***

A neat fact that didn't make it into the last message:
Peter said this at Pentecost, "Seeing what was ahead, [David] spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned [οὔτε ἐγκατελείφθη] to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." (Quoting Psalm 16)

Interestingly, the word for "not abandoned" is a form of the same word used in Matthew 27:46 for "forsaken" [ἐγκατέλιπες].

So, Peter was saying that David predicted that Jesus would not stay forsaken. Yes, forsaken on the Cross, but NO not forsaken to remain in the grave!

#ChristIsRisen!

[Matt's Messages] “Acting in Line with the Truth of the Gospel”

“Acting in Line with the Truth of the Gospel”
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel
July 2, 2017 :: Galatians 2:11-16

Our sermon series right now is entitled “The Truth of the Gospel” because that was the very thing at stake–the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul was astonished to learn that these churches the region of Galatia were on the brink of abandoning the truth of the gospel and believing a different gospel, which was really no gospel at all!

There was danger in the churches of Galatia. False teachers had infiltrated the churches and accused Paul of having the wrong gospel. They apparently accused Paul of getting his gospel from the apostles in Jerusalem and getting that gospel wrong.

And because the gospel is at stake, Paul can’t just take that lying down.

He has to write a letter to set the story straight.

And to try to straighten out these churches on the gospel.

Because the gospel is no little thing.

If you believe the wrong gospel or you preach the gospel, you are damned.

So ever since chapter 1, verse 11, Paul has had one major overarching goal. Does anybody remember what it is?

Paul has been trying to demonstrate that his gospel, the good news that he preached, was not something he got from other mere men.

1:11&12, “ I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

And Paul’s been giving his personal story to prove that point.

He didn’t go from persecutor to preacher because of some man-made story.

He didn’t get his gospel from Jerusalem. He hardly spent any time therein the first 14 years.

And after he did visit in Jerusalem, he had to defend his gospel against those who wanted his teammate Titus to be circumcised, and the other apostles there (Peter, James, and John) did not add one thing to his message.

Instead, they divided up the labor, agreed to fight poverty, and gave each other the right hand of fellowship.

They were 100% together on the gospel.

Peter, James, and John agreed with Paul’s gospel.

He didn’t get it from them. They didn’t get it from him.

They both had gotten it straight from Jesus Christ.

Now, Paul is going to get to the heart of this letter in the next few paragraphs.

He’s going to reveal the false gospel that was loose among the Galatians and he’s going to counter it with the true gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

But as he approaches that heart of this letter, he’s still trying to make the basic point that his gospel is not derived nor defective. Not derived nor defective.

He didn’t get his gospel from Peter, James, or John.

“Do you want more proof of that?

Well then, let me tell you about the time I had the public fight with the apostle Peter over the truth of the gospel.”

You heard me right. The apostle Peter and the apostle Paul went head to head over a gospel issue, and Peter was in the wrong.

The title of today’s message is “Acting in Line with the Truth of the Gospel.” I get that from verse 14.

Paul says that is the exact opposite of what Peter was doing in Antioch.

He was not NOT “acting in line with the truth of the gospel.”

Paul has one more story to tell before he gets into the heart of his letter.

It’s another story that shows just how independent he really was from the apostles in Jerusalem.

He was so independent, he wasn’t afraid to rebuke the apostle Peter to his face in public!

That’s interesting, isn’t it?

From the gospels and the first part of the book of Acts, it’s clear that the Apostle Peter was kind of the lead apostle.

I don’t think he was the first pope as our Roman Catholic friends do, but he clearly took the lead for the apostles. He was the chief spokesman for them on the day of Pentecost, for example.

But the Apostle Paul was not afraid to stand up to him when he was clearly in the wrong. Verse 1.

“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.”

Paul’s gospel was clearly not dependent on the person of Peter!

In fact, Paul’s gospel stood over the person of Peter.

If Peter was opposed to Paul’s gospel, then Peter needed to corrected, not Paul’s gospel.

Do you see how that works? We’ll come back to that.

What was going on here?

Apparently, the apostle Peter had left Jerusalem and taken a trip up to Syrian Antioch. Yes, the same Syria that’s in the news today.

The church in Syrian Antioch was the one that had sent Paul and Barnabas out as missionaries. Paul and Barnabas were the people on the fridge of the Christians at Antioch.

And there were both Jewish and Gentile Christians in that church.

Which are better Jewish or Gentile Christians?

That was a trick question!

Peter, a Jewish Christian, had come up to visit the church in Antioch, perhaps to see how things were going.

And while he was there, Peter had table fellowship with both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. He ate with both.

Is that a big deal?

You bet it is.

From what we know about the Jews of the first century, they were very careful to stay pure in terms of what they ate and with whom.

Think about Daniel and his friends back in Babylon in the Old Testament. How careful they were about their diets.

But Peter has had a vision. Remember the vision that Peter had in Acts chapter 10?

I call it, “Peter’s Pork Picnic.”

The Lord brought down a great big red and black checkered picnic blanket with a big feastful of food on it from Hog’s Galore?

And he said, “Eat it, Peter!”

Remember that? Peter had a hard time with that idea, but eventually he understood that the Gentiles had been included in the gospel. And that all foods were now declared clean.

So when he went up to Antioch, he had bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. He had sausage and cheese omelets. He had whatever the Gentiles there were eating! He ate it, too.

Now, it’s possible that other Jews would have held off on what they ate. Maybe their consciences wouldn’t allow them to eat all of that stuff. Or even to eat with those Gentiles for fear of contaminating the purity of their consciences.

That might have been okay as long as they accepted one another as brothers and sisters in Christ the way we learned about last year in Romans 14 and 15.

But Peter ate it all, and he ate with the Gentile Christians.

Until...

Until a group of guys came from James. Look at verse 12.

“Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.”

Now, we don’t know much about these guys who came from James.

I always thought that they were “the circumcision group.”

“Certain men came from James” who were the “circumcision group” that Peter was afraid of.

And that’s very possible. Perhaps they had a message from James about being careful whom you offend or how you relate to the Law of Moses. Or perhaps they came from James, but they had their own message for Peter. Or maybe they just looked down their noses at him, and he noticed.

But I’ve come to think that maybe these certain men brought a message from James that persecution had increased in Jerusalem of the Christians by the non-Christian Jews (“the circumcision”) because word had gotten out that the Christians were attacking the Law of Moses.

And if you attack their law, they will attack you.

And not just you, but people you love.

That seems likely to me.

We don’t know what they said, but we do know what Peter did with it.

He slunk back on his principles.

He drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles.

From his Gentile brothers and sisters in Christ.

And not because his theology had changed.

Not because he realized that he had been in the wrong.

This was not repentance. This was not daring to be a Daniel. This was fear.

Paul says he did this (v.12) “because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.”

He was afraid.

He was afraid of what someone else would think or say or do.

Perhaps he was afraid of persecution, not just of himself but of people he cared about back home in Jerusalem.

Fear is a powerful motive.

Peter compromised on his principles.

And he became a hypocrite.

A hypocrite is someone who says they believe on thing but act in a way that shows that they really do not.

They act the opposite of what they preach.

They talk the talk, but they don’t what?  Walk the walk.

That was Peter at this point in his life.

A man who had walked with Jesus.
A man who had been commissioned and recommissioned by Jesus.
A man who had seen the risen Jesus.
A man who had preached on Pentecost and escaped from prison.
A man who led the church and led the apostles.

Here he is slinking back and taking his tray solely to the Jewish table in the lunchroom alone and never to the Gentile table that he had frequented just last week.

And others followed his lead.  V.13

“The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.”

Do you feel that? “Even Barnabas.”

Paul’s partner. The guy who helped him plant these churches in Galatia.

Even Barnabas was eating only with the Jews.

Because everybody else was doing it!

I don’t know where Paul had been, but when he got back to Antioch, he saw what was the situation, and he spoke up.

Maybe he did it privately, I don’t know, but the sin was public, so so was the confrontation.

When he left, there was one church in Antioch, one big happy church fellowshiping together.

When he got back, Peter had effectively divided the church into the Jewish Church and the Gentile Church, and he had given the impression that the Gentile Christians weren’t really Christians. V.14

“When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew [You know you are free to eat Gentile food with Gentiles]\. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? [To live like a Jew?]”

Do you see his point?

Peter is being inconsistent.

By separating himself NOW from the Gentiles, he’s sending the message that they are not proper Christians.

To be a proper Christian, you have to become a Jew first.

What’s next? Are you going to require they follow the whole Mosaic Law?

Are you going to require that they get circumcised?

I thought we’ve been over that with Titus?

By his actions, Peter was giving the impression that the only Christians who were acceptable as believers were those who had taken on the Mosaic Law.

And that would amount to another gospel.

Do you see why Paul calls this (in verse 14), “NOT acting in line with the truth of the gospel?”

Did Peter actually believe a different gospel?

No. They were 100% together on the gospel. Remember that?

But Peter’s actions were telling a different story.

He was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel.

Here’s application point number one:

#1. ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

We need, not only to believe the truth of the gospel, but to live in a way that accords with it.

You can preach a false gospel by living falsely.

You can have every box checked correctly on your statement of faith but live in way that denies every word of it.

For Peter, it was not accepting as brothers those whom he knew genuinely were.

How are you and I doing at aligning our lives with the truth of the gospel?

Do we walk the walk or just talk the talk?

If we say that God forgives ours sins, do we forgive those who sin against us?

If we say that God always keeps His promises, do we stay faithful to ours, even if it hurts?

If we say that Jesus changes us by His grace, do we demonstrate a changed life?

I’m not asking if we are living flawless lives of sinless perfection.

I’m asking if we have glaring discrepancies between what we preach and what we live out on a daily basis.

Because people are watching.

And because you are have more influence on others than you think.

If you claim to be a gospel-believing Christian and you live in a way that is not in line with the truth of the gospel, you are sending not only a false message about the gospel with your life, but you are sending the message that it’s okay for others to do it, too!

“Even Barnabas.”

“Even Barnabas was led astray.”

The King James translates verse 14 with the words, “they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel,” and that’s reflects the Greek really well.

The word in Greek is, “orthopodeo.”

What does that sound like?

It’s the root that we get our word, “Orthopedic” from.

Their actions were not in line, they were not straight, they were not upright.

Let me put it this way, “Peter was out of whack, so Paul gave him one!”

Are you out of whack?

Peter’s gospel was good, but he was (at this point) living out whack with his own gospel.

Are you living out of whack with the gospel?

Are there some areas of your life that are just begging for change?

Because they really don’t fit with the good news of Jesus?

I love it that it was Peter who was out of whack.

Because that gives me hope for my own change.

Peter obviously got the message. Maybe not at first. But the rest of his life demonstrated a closer correspondence between his gospel and his behavior.

How about us?

How are we doing at living in the fear of God instead of the fear of man?

Peter had temporarily succumbed to the fear of the circumcision group.

He was acting like he thought they wanted him to.

Whom are you acting for?  Whose drum are you dancing to?

Align your life with the truth of the gospel.

Number two: Call upon others to do the same.

#2. CALL UPON OTHER CHRISTIANS TO ALIGN THEIR LIVES WITH THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

I’m still amazed that Paul stood up to Peter.

I don’t know that I could have ever done that.

But Paul thought it was necessary.

The gospel was a stake. So he spoke up.

Can you imagine being a fly on the wall for that conversation?!

Other people were following Peter into hypocrisy. Even Barnabas. So Paul spoke up.

Even to an apostle.

When was the last time you confronted a brother or sister in Christ about their behavior that was bringing shame on the gospel?

“Hey, buddy, think about what you’re doing.”

“Hey, friend, that’s no good. Christians shouldn’t do that.”

“Hey, brother, I have to say something to you about that. It’s the opposite of the gospel.”

“Hey, sister, can we talk about what you’re doing there? Because it’s sending the wrong message to the rest of the church.”

We do not like that sort of thing.

(I guess there are some people who do like that sort of thing, but they’ve got another problem!)

I don’t think that Paul liked do it.

But the gospel was at stake!

And it didn’t matter who the person was.

It could be any Christian, including any church leader.

This was Peter for crying out loud!

What mattered was the gospel. The gospel was worth confrontation about.

Friends, if I live out of whack with the gospel, I invite you to point it out to me.

Give me a whack!

I’m not calling for us to us to run around whacking everybody we disagree with, especially on minor things.

But the gospel is a major thing, and we can’t stay silent. We must speak up.

Peter’s behavior may have seemed like a minor thing. He was just not eating with people he used to eat with.

But his behavior was actually a major thing. He was saying, with his behavior, that only those who were keeping the Law were saved and acceptable to be around.

Paul had to call him out on that.

Is there somebody that you need to call out?

Is there somebody you need to rebuke?

Somebody you have a relationship with?

I remember once I saw a Christian friend who was not acting like a Christian on social media.

They were spreading false stories and doing it in a rude way.

My instinct in most of those cases is to “hide” the person or just scroll by, but I had  a relationship with them enough that I felt I should say something.

So I was no Paul but I tried to say, “Friend, you are better than this. That’s not how a Christian should act on Facebook. That story is not true (here’s the true facts). I’d recommend you take it down.”

And they did. And they even thanked me.

I like to think that Peter thanked Paul, at least eventually, for this rebuke.

The Proverbs say, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love” (27:5).

Who do you need to love like this?

#3. PUT YOUR FAITH IN THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.

Because that’s what this is all about.

Paul continues to Peter, verse 15.

“We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.”

There is so much there, and we’ve run out of time.

We’ll come back to it next week.

But the point Paul is making to Peter is that they know the gospel.

The gospel of grace!

Not the gospel of doing the law.

The gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ.

We are justified in Christ. Remember that from Romans? “Dikaiosunai?”

We just had a lesson in it in the adult Sunday School Class today.

Paul says, “As great as it is to be born Jew, we don’t want to make other people into Jews! We want to share the gospel of grace with them.”

You don’t get saved, you don’t get justified, by observing the Law.

You get saved, you get justified, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

Put your faith in Him!

Not in yourself.
Not in your works.
Not in your circumcision.
Not in your clean Jewish diet.

Or hanging out with your Jewish friends.

But in Jesus Christ alone.

Put your faith in the truth of gospel of grace.

Messages in this Series

01. To the Churches in Galatia
02. Turning to a Different Gospel
03. Preaching the Faith He Once Tried to Destroy
04. So the Truth of the Gospel Might Remain With You

Ferns and Moss on Granite Ledge

[Matt's Messages] "The People On Your Fridge"

“The People On Your Fridge”
Gospel Roots (1892-2017)
June 25, 2017 :: Acts 1:8

This is our 6th monthly message in our ongoing Gospel Roots sermon series.

We are looking back over the foundational values and practices and principles that undergird and nourish who we are today.

What is the root system that our church has grown up out of?

The first and most foundational gospel root was the gospel itself: Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

The second was about singing the gospel together. Worship.

The third was about sharing the gospel with lost people. Evangelism.

The fourth was about being a praying church. Devoting ourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

And the fifth message was about building our church on the word of God. Remember the Swedish phrase, “Var står det skrivet?” “Where stands it written?”

Well, today, I want to talk about the people on your fridge.

Now, if your family is anything like our family, you have pictures of your family on your refrigerator.

Maybe a sports picture (or 20!) of kids with a baseball bat on their shoulder or in a football or wrestling uniform.

And maybe a picture of everybody in your family at the beach. The cousins.

But you also probably have pictures on your fridge of people who aren’t in your biological family. It’s their family all standing or sitting together and smiling for the camera, and there are words on the picture. They say, “ReachGlobal” or “Miracle Mountain Ranch” or “Word of Life” or “TEAM.”

They are missionaries.

For every one of these Gospel Roots messages, I’ve had some historical artifact in this box. Today it’s the prayer cards that often go up on our fridges.

These are too small for you to see, but there’s a whole bunch of them.

You know why?

Because this church has been incredibly dedicated to world missions for a very very long time.

If they had had fridges back then, this fellow would have been on the fridge of the church family back in 1897.

I took this picture at EFCA One. They had a great big board of historical photos. And I took a picture of his picture. He wasn’t actually there!

Does anybody know who this debonair dude is? He’s got an epic beard that would go great in today’s beard culture.

And it’s not Buffalo Bill Cody.

Anybody know who it is?

This is Frederick Franson.

Born June 1852 and died in August 1908, Frederick Franson was an associate of D.L. Moody and an early leader among the Free Churches and other ethnically Scandinavian denominations.

He founded six missionary agencies including the Scandinavian Alliance Mission.

And in 1897, Frederick Franson visited a little church in Lanse, Pennyslvania.

That was 120 years ago. Our church was only 5 years old.

This is what Bea Johnson wrote in our history book, “In the winter of 1897, there was a spirit of revival in the church, and as a result, many people came to know the Lord as their personal Savior. During that time of revival, a young man by the name of Frederick Franson came to visit the fellowship. Rev. Franson was the founder of TEAM, then known as the Scandinavian Alliance Mission. He was a firm believer that time was short and that the Lord’s return was very near–this conviction spurred him to go to Scandinavian churches to try to recruit men and women for missionary service. No one in this newly organized congregation volunteered for full time missionary work, but the leaders of the church promised Rev. Franson that they would support the Scandinavian Alliance Mission financially until the Lord would return” (“Lanse Evangelical Free Church 1892-1992: A Centennial Celebration).

And we are keeping that promise still today.

Down through the years, we have supported many missionaries with two missions that could claim some descendancy from Franson, TEAM and ReachGlobal.

Bea writes that in three years later in 1900, “contributions to missions totaled $494.29. This was considerable more than the cost of the new church building that had been erected during that year” (Ibid)! I love that!

In 1905, “the church had the privilege of seeing one of its members, Carl Nelson, answer the ‘call’ to become a missionary in China.”

That’s decades before anybody in this building was even born.

If you read the history, missions appears again and again all throughout the decades.

For example, in 1949, the pastor of Lanse Free was a man named Harold Swanson. And Pastor Swanson challenged the church family give at least ten percent of the church budget to missions.

Right now, amazingly, the percentage has grown closer to 25%! Every time you give a dollar, a quarter of that goes out from here to somewhere else to mission support.

And when you throw in things like special offerings to missions projects like Family Bible Week missions project? The percentage is probably more like 30%!

And there have been so many individual missionaries that we have supported.

Some of you are old enough to remember names like David and Gwen Greene and Earl and Angie Miller and David Tader.

I didn’t know them, but I did know these people:

Bob and Joyce Dignan.

The Dignans were with TEAM in Korea. We partnered with them for over 40 years!

Or this sweet lady. Elizabeth Anderson.

Or does anybody know these people?

Tim and Debbie. We began supporting them in 1981 at $100 a month. That’s 36 years! If we had never increased our giving to them, that’s $43,200.

Kim and Jan. Through the years.

They are the same people, but they change, don’t they?!

Here’s some from 1988. Our own home grown missionaries.

John and Becky.

Years later, we would send out some more from our church.

Bruce and Donna.

Here’s some more from the 80's era:

Jim and Kay. They are still ours.

Henoc and his family. They are still ours.

Sent out in the 80's, still serving today.

There are many more than I can list.

And more than I have fridge cards for!

All because this church has been dedicated to world missions for a very very long time.

There have been a LOT of people on our fridges!

Why is that?

It’s because of Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Isn’t it?

Our Lord Jesus was eating with his disciples, after His resurrection[!], and they asked him when He was going to return and set up His kingdom.

And Jesus told them that wasn’t something for them to know.

We don’t know when Jesus will return. We know that He will return! But we aren’t told the times or dates.

And while we wait expectantly, just like Frederick Franson, we are supposed to be busy reaching our world for Jesus Christ.

Jesus calls it “being his witnesses.” Look at verse 8.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Now, there is a lot of things we could say about that verse.

Some people have made it into a strategy for local church outreach. First, you reach your Jerusalem (Lanse), then you reach your Judea (Central Pennsylvania), then you reach your Samaria, the people who are not like you but are right here next to you, and then you reach out to the ends of the earth.

That’s not a bad idea, to think about who is in those categories for us.

But that’s not why Jesus said what’s in Acts 1:8.

He said it because that’s what they were going to do.

This is a promise and a prophecy.

Acts 1:8 is the table of contents for the book of Acts.

Acts 1:8 is exactly what happened!

Chapters 1-7 of Acts are about the gospel in Jerusalem.

In chapter 8, the gospel makes it to Judea and Samaria.

And by chapter 13, there are missionaries named Paul and Barnabas who start taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Paul and Barnabas were the guys on the fridge cards of the church at Antioch and the churches in Galatia.

And now the gospel has reached all the way to Central Pennsylvania!

And it’s still going out to the “ends of the earth.”

That’s why we do missions.

Because Jesus told us to!

He said this would happen, and He wants us to be involved.

Because it’s not just a promise, it’s a command.

When he says, “You will be my witnesses...” that means He wants us to do it.

Like when Mom says to clean your room, “You will clean your room.” That’s a prophecy, and it’s also a command.

“You WILL BE my witnesses.”

Being witnesses is not a option for the followers of Jesus Christ.

A witness is someone who gives testimony. A witness is someone who has seen something or experienced something and can tell others about it.

These men in Acts chapter 1 were eye-witnesses of the resurrected Christ!

And you and I are ear-witnesses. We have heard the good news that Jesus is alive, and we need to tell others.

And we’ve all experienced Him at work in our lives.

And we need to tell others.

“You WILL BE my witnesses.”

Jesus also said, “go and make disciples of all nations...” (Matthew 28:19).

He gave the church a Great Commission, marching orders.

And they can’t be fulfilled by our just sitting around.

“You will be my witnesses.”

How are you doing at that?

How are we doing as a church on the whole of sharing the gospel with others?

How are we doing as a church of taking the gospel to those who don’t have it yet?

I don’t know about you, but I need constant encouragement to keep doing it.

I see three big motivators in this passage.

First off, Jesus is alive.

That will make you want to be a witness!

Verse 3 says that “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.”

This isn’t a fairy tale. This is history.

A man died and three days later came back from the dead!

That should motivate us to be a witness.

The second motivation is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised this gift in verse 4 and told them not to try witnessing until the gift had arrived in Jerusalem.

And then in verse 8, Jesus said the gift of Holy Spirit would empower them.

“[Y]ou will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you...” And that’s exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost.

And that’s how they had the power to go from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth.

We don’t do this witness thing on our own. We do it in the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

And the third motivator is the return of Christ.

In verse 9, Jesus ascends into heaven. He gives the marching orders and then returns to the Father.

But that’s not the end of the story. Two angels appear and say, “Don’t just stand there. Get busy. Because (v.11) “[t]his same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'

And you don’t want to be wasting your time while you wait for Him!

The EFCA has always emphasized the return of Christ and how that should motivate us to be busy evangelizing the world.

The resurrection, the Spirit, and the return of Christ empower and motivate us to be Jesus’ witnesses in all the earth.

“You will be my witnesses.”

Three simple points of application today.

#1. GO.

“You will be my witnesses,” and He is Lord, so we better do it.

Now, we already had a message about local evangelism in our community.

Bus ministry, Wild West Day, Wild Game Dinner and all that.

But it’s important to think about how we are doing it today. Who are you inviting to Family Bible Week, for example?

Who are you inviting to the Good News Cruise?

And more importantly, who are you sharing your testimony with these days?

Go to them with the gospel.

But somebody’s got to take that gospel to the ends of the earth!

Not just around here but around the globe.

Go!

I love it that this church has seen it’s members go off into world missions, the Carl Nelsons, the John & Beckys, the Bruce & Donna’s, the Steve & Tirzah’s.

They weren’t with us back then but the Judy Carlsons and the Nancy Wertz’s.

And now Abraham and Jordyn!

I love that. Do you guys have a fridge card yet?

Who else wants to go?

It might be just a short-term trip.

Nesta Kephart went to Haiti back in the day. So did Tom Fisch. Schenley’s been in short term trips.

Our youth group went into the inner city of Brooklyn in 2000 for a week.

We sent Tom to Thailand for 9 months and Katie to China short term.

And in very recent years, we sent whole teams on short term trips:

Serbia in 2012

Mexico in 2014

Pittsburgh in 2015

And Denham Springs in 2017! [They didn’t get their picture taken together!]

I wonder what’s next?!

I also wonder who is the next career missionary we have among us?

Are you called to go?

It could be a young person. It could be an older person.

God calls all kinds of people into missionary service.

Single people. Like Tobi.

Married people. Like Phil and Ruthann.

Families.

Is the Lord calling you to serve Him in missions?

I’ve been praying for 19 years that the Lord would regularly raise up people from within our own church family and launch them into intercultural, international ministry.

Of course, not everybody can go far away. But everybody can....

#2. SEND.

I remember what a missionary speaker once said that made a great impression on me. He said that you only have 3 choice when it came to missions, “Go, Send, or Disobey.”

Because Jesus said, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And it takes a TEAM to get them there.

We all work together to make it happen.

Our most recent new missionaries are:

Zeke & Meagan
Darko & Elizabeth
Donnie & Tonya

And Rich and Anne.

You know, we haven’t even met them in person yet.

John and Becky knew them and we skyped with them to interview them.

But you know why we began to be a part of their sending team?

Because of the promise our forefathers made to Frederick Franson!

These folks are members of TEAM.

And we hope to meet them for the first time this Fall.

Thank you for sending them.

When you give your regular gift in the offering, you are automatically involved in sending and supporting these servants of God.

And together, we are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Of course, you don’t have to just send our LEFC missionaries! We’ve got missionaries on our fridge that aren’t a part of the missions ministry here at Lanse Free Church. You’ve met some of them over the years.

You’ve probably got missionaries on your fridge that we don’t have on ours.

That’s how this task gets accomplished!

By everybody not only going to the extent they are called but everybody helping to send missionaries where God is calling them.

What are you doing to be involved in sending?

Maybe you need to talk with Abe and Jordyn about joining their support team?

Last one. I changed it from disobey. Go, Send, and...

#3. PRAY.

Why are these folks on our fridges?

Why are they hung on the wall in the back of the auditorium?

Why are they on the map out in the foyer?

To remind us to pray for them!

This week at EFCA One, I ran into a missionary couple who had been here on our campus for the district conference in 2013.

They are now missionaries in Panama.  John and Bianca.

They had another couple with them that I met this as well, Frank and Silvia.

Wonderful servants of the Lord with ReachGlobal.

You know what they did? They invited me to come to Panama and bring a group if we felt so called.

But they also reached out and handed me these cards to put on my fridge or my filing cabinet and said, “Please pray for us.”

They are on the front lines of missions ministry.

They are being Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth.

And what do they want most from us?  Prayer.

It’s the least we can do. What is your commitment to praying for missionaries?

How do you do it?

What do you need to do more of?

Jesus said, “[Y]ou will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

So we better go, send, and pray.

Let’s do it right now!


***

Previous Messages in This Series:

01. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified
02. Sing!
03. Lost and Found
04. The Church That Prays Together
05. Where Stands It Written?

Miniature Fern on Granite

[Matt's Messages] “So the Truth of the Gospel Might Remain With You”

“So the Truth of the Gospel Might Remain With You”
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel
June 18, 2017 :: Galatians 2:1-10

Our sermon series is called “The Truth of the Gospel” because that is the very thing that was at stake.

So far, we’ve made it through three messages on chapter 1, and what have we seen?

We’ve seen a group of churches who were in extreme danger of losing the truth of the gospel of grace.

And we’ve seen an apostle who has pulled out his strongest words to try to rescue them from this perilous outcome.

Some bad guys have infiltrated the churches in the region of Galatia and have spread  a false teaching that threatens to undo all of the good work of the gospel that Paul and his team had started when they planted those churches.

And these bad guys have apparently been bad-mouthing Paul himself. They have apparently said that Paul gospel was faulty. That it was derived and distorted. Derived from the apostles in Jerusalem and distorted because he was leaving out some important bits about the Law of Moses.

So Paul has been setting the record straight.

We saw last week that he is insisting that his gospel did not come from men. From other humans or even from himself. Look back at chapter 1 verse 11.

“I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (vv.11-12).

That’s the main point of this section. Last week, Paul told his story. How he used to try to destroy the church and miraculously, now he was preaching the gospel he once tried to destroy. That’s because Jesus Christ met him on the road to Damascus and changed his direction 180 degrees.

He didn’t get his gospel from some mere mortal. He got his gospel straight from Jesus Christ Himself.

So he didn’t need for his gospel to be confirmed by those who were apostles before him. He didn’t go to Jerusalem. In fact, he went out to Arabia for 3 years.

He did visit Jerusalem once. But only for 15 days and he only met with Peter and James during that time.

He is not dependent and his gospel is not dependent on Jerusalem.

That’s what he is trying to show to the Galatians.

Don’t listen to whatever story these troublemakers are telling you. That’s (in today’s words) “fake news.”

Paul says, “My gospel is straight from Jesus and not dependent on the apostles in Jerusalem.”

Now in today’s text (verses 1-10), he is still making the same point.

But now he’s going to tell us about another visit he made to Jerusalem and this time he really did lay out his gospel and have it compared to the gospel being preached by the apostles in Jerusalem (James, Peter, John).

This was not to submit his gospel to a test to see if it was, in fact, true but to avoid any division between the various apostles on the gospel itself. And while they were having this meeting, there arose an important test-case that confirmed Paul’s gospel and confirmed that Paul’s gospel was the exact same gospel of Peter, James, and John.

And that was the exact same gospel that he had preached to the Galatians and the exact same gospel which he wanted them to stick to.

And it’s the exact same gospel that we believe here today.

The title of our message is taken right out of verse 5 and it’s where we get the title for our series, as well. “So That the Truth of the Gospel Might Remain with You.”

That’s the whole point right there.

That’s the whole shooting match.

Did anybody wake up this morning thankful that a guy who lived in the first century named Titus was never circumcised?

I didn’t think so.

But in a few moments, I hope you are very thankful for that very thing.

That a guy named Titus who lived in the first century, a Gentile guy perhaps of Greek ethnicity, was never circumcised to mark his identification with the God of Jews.

I hope that in a few moments you are very thankful for that very thing.

Because it has a bearing on your life today.

In Galatians chapter 2, Paul tells us about the next time he went to Jerusalem.

The first time, he only stayed 15 days, and a long time had passed.

But now, God sent Paul back to Jerusalem to have another talk with the other apostles about the gospel. Chapter 2, verse 1.

“Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.”

Fourteen years later (probably fourteen years later than his conversion on the Damascus Road), Paul is headed back to Jerusalem for another conference with the other apostles. Who goes with him?

Titus (that’s going to be really important) and Barnabas.

Barnabas was his friend and co-missionary. They churches in Galatia know him as Paul’s partner in the gospel. He was a Jew like Paul.

But this other guy Titus was a Greek, that is to say that he was a Gentile, a non-Jew.

And these guys were summoned to Jerusalem by whom?

By the apostles?

Did Peter and James and the home office call Paul in to give an account?

No. Verse 2 says that he went because God told him to.

“I went in response to a revelation...”

Now, it’s we’re not quite certain how this fits in with the chronology of the book of Acts. Many scholars believe that this is another description of the Jerusalem council that we learned about back in Acts chapter 15. And that’s definitely possible.

But I tend to think with many other scholars that this is another account of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 11. I think it fits better with all of the details we know.

It could actually be yet another visit that isn’t in Acts. That’s possible, too.

Regardless of how it fits with Acts, Paul, Barnabas and Titus head to Jerusalem, on orders from God to lay out their gospel of grace to those in Jerusalem to make sure that Paul had not been (v.2), “running or had run [his] race in vain."

That does not mean that Paul was worried about his gospel.

He was worried that the there was going to be a split between the good news preached by Peter and the good news he preached which would have meant a divided church, a divided mission, a split right down the middle of the early church.

A contradictory message being promulgated by two different sides. One right and another wrong, and conflict on every side.

That’s the goal of Satan, right there.

And Paul did not want Satan to win.

So, they have a little talk.

And while they’re meeting, there is a disruption. There is an interruption.

And it threatens to divide them for good.

Here’s what happened. Some people wanted Titus to get circumcised.

Shocking, I know.

It’s hard for us to care because we don’t realize what is at stake.

Do you think that Titus should have gotten circumcised or not?  Or did it not matter?

Circumcision, for those of you who don’t know, is not easy to talk about. It is “the act of removing the foreskin of the male genital” and among the Jewish people it “originated in the special covenant God made with Abraham” in the book of Genesis “whereby every male child, whether freeborn Israelite or household slave, would be circumcise don the eighth day after birth as a sign of participation in the chosen people of God” (Timothy George, “Galatians,” pg. 142-143).

It was incredibly important to the Jews.

Titus was not a Jew. Should Titus get circumcised?

Some said “No.” Some said, “Yes.”

And you could see why they’d say, “Yes,” right?

In the Old Testament, if a man were going to identify with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he should undergo circumcision.

Jesus is the Messiah, promised by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So if you are going to identify with Him, shouldn’t you go all the way?

Do you see what’s going on?

Paul says, “No way does Titus get circumcised.”

“No way. That would be antithetical to the gospel that I preach.”

This is a big deal.

The gospel Paul preaches is a gospel of grace.

And circumcision added to that gospel becomes a different gospel.

Is circumcision bad? No way.

But added to the finished work of Jesus as a requirement, it becomes bad. Look at verse 3.

“Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. [Titus said, “No way.” And nobody convinced him otherwise.] This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”

That was a very important moment in history!

Some false brothers (Wow. What a category that is! Some false brothers) had infiltrated their ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.

Paul is going to say a lot more about this in chapters 3 and 4.

Freedom in Christ is the theme of Galatians.

And these false brothers were trying to take it away from the church.

They didn’t see it that way. But Paul saw it very clearly.

Here’s the point.

The gospel of grace is Jesus plus nothing.

Faith in Jesus plus nothing that we do. Nothing that we add to it.

The only thing we bring to the table is the sin that needs saving from.

Jesus brings all of the saving work.

And we trust in Him.

But these guys, these false brothers, wanted it to be Jesus (yes) but Jesus PLUS circumcision. Jesus plus the Law. Jesus plus works of the Law.

And that is another gospel!

That’s what it would have meant if they had MADE Titus get circumcised.

If Titus wanted to get circumcised, that’s fine. He can do that.

Timothy, Paul’s other co-worker was half-Greek, half-Jew and he got circumcised to not be a stumbling block to other Jews. But he wanted to.

If Titus was MADE to get circumcised, it would have amounted to another gospel.

Are you glad now that they didn’t back down?

Here’s application point number one of two this morning:

#1. DON’T GIVE IN TO FALSE BROTHERS AND A FALSE GOSPEL.

That’s the whole point of the book of Galatians.

There will be pressure from others to believe a false gospel.

Don’t give in. I love verse 5.

“We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”

Oh, isn’t that last part interesting?

They didn’t give in back in Jerusalem so that the gospel might remain with the brothers in Galatia!

And that means that it remains with the brothers in Central Pennsylvania.

Because Paul and Titus did not give in for a moment!

Isn’t that interesting.

What we do with the gospel matters to others.

If we give in on the gospel it will affect others around us.

If I give in on the gospel, it will affect the rest of this church.

If you give in on the gospel, it will affect other people, too.

Don’t give in. Not even for a moment.

To false brothers and false gospel.

Do you have a category for false brothers?

People who call themselves Christians but really are not?

These people may have a great following.

They may be popular.

They may be people you love.

They may be people who have good things to say in other areas of life.

But they have the gospel WRONG. And they are preaching it wrong.

And it affects others.

Don’t allow yourself to be duped by them.

False teaching is real, and it must be countered. It must be defended against.

Our freedom is at stake!  Our freedom from our sins! Our freedom from Satan. Our freedom in Christ.

Now, don’t be hasty to call someone a false brother. But don’t pretend that they don’t exist, either.

There is only one true gospel, and it must be defended at any cost.

Even from people who say, “Jesus is the Messiah.”

Because if they say, “Jesus is the Messiah, but you also have to do this. You also have to add to the basis of your justification.” It’s “‘Jesus Christ and the mass, or Jesus Christ and water baptism, or Jesus Christ and good works, or Jesus Christ and a charismatic experience. [No!] Paul’s argument is that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be mingled with Christ as a ground of our acceptance with God. Our hope is built on nothing less–and nothing more–than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” (Timothy George, “Galatians” pg. 153).

Don't give in to false brothers and a false gospel.

Not even for a moment.

That’s my prayer for Emerysn, Grayson, and Brigan.

That they would grow up knowing this gospel and not turning away from it. Not even for a moment.

“So that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”

So we know what Paul thought. We know what Barnabas thought. We know what Titus thought.

He thought, “Whew. That was a close one.”

But what did Peter think? What did John think? What did James think?  V.6

“As for those who seemed to be important [the recognized leaders in Jerusalem]–whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance–those men added nothing to my message.”

Literally, “they added nothing to me.”

We had the exact same gospel.

Peter, James, and John agreed that Titus should not be circumcised.

They agreed that the gospel was a gospel of grace from first to last.

They agreed that there was no difference between what Paul preached and what they preached.

They had the exact same gospel.

Notice again how Paul is adamant that his gospel does not depend upon them. He just about says that he doesn’t care about them all!

I don’t think he means that he doesn’t care about them as people. Of course he does. And he wants them to agree.

But he doesn’t care what position they have in the eyes other others. If they have the gospel wrong, they are wrong.

He does not need their approval.

I want to live like that.

I have a hard time living like that.  That’s hard for me.

I like to be liked.
I love to be loved.

I want people to approve of me and my ministry.

Paul wants that and respects these men if they share his gospel.

But he definitely does not live for their approval. And he doesn’t just give his because of their position.

What he cares about is the gospel.

And, the good news is that they totally agreed on the good news! V.7

“On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

The good news is that they totally agreed on the good news.

There would be no division in their fellowship. Only a division of labor.

The Jerusalem apostles could clearly see that Paul was called primarily to the Gentiles (literally, to the uncircumcised).  And they could see that Peter was called primarily to the Jews (to those who were circumcised).

But they could also see that they were going to take the exact same gospel to both groups!

The exact same gospel that Paul had preached to the Galatians.

And the exact same gospel that we preach here at Lanse Free Church.

The exact same gospel Paul is urging the Galatians not to abandon.

The exact same gospel that we should protect and defend and cling to today.

Here’s point number two and our last for today.

#2. WORK IN TANDEM WITH TRUE BROTHERS IN THE TRUE GOSPEL.

What a great example there is here!

These men did the careful work of making sure they believed the exact same things about the essentials of the gospel and then they shook hands on it and divided up the work.

You see how there is no competition here?

There is no, Peter versus Paul.

No Wendy’s versus McDonalds.

No our team versus their team.

One gospel team.

“You go after those guys.

We’ll go after these guys.

And if you need anything, holler.”

Now, it doesn’t always work that way.

In fact, we’re going to see how Peter and Paul actually clashed later next time we’re in Galatians together.

But on this day, they were together.

One gospel team.

That’s one of the things I love about being a part of the EFCA.

Tomorrow, I’m going to hop a plane to Austin and represent you at EFCA One.

It’s ONE because there is ONE gospel that we preach in the EFCA.

The exact same gospel.

We are not divided on the gospel. We are together.

But we divide up the work. Some work in missions. Some work in cities.

We do our gospel work here in Central PA.

But we are together.

We work in tandem with truth brothers in the truth gospel.

And of course that goes way beyond the EFCA, as well.

Anyone who believes and is living in accord with true gospel is a true brother, and we are called to work in tandem (not in competition) with them.

And that includes in our ministries of mercy.

I love how Paul ends by saying that after they were sure they preached the same gospel, they also made sure that they were both committed to ministry to the poor.

The gospel of grace when believed, always issues into good works.

It is not based on good works but it always produces good works.

The gospel of grace creates love for others, especially those who need it the most.

“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

Brothers and sisters, let us not give in to false brothers and false gospels, not even for a moment, but where there is the true gospel we have true brothers with whom we form true partnerships to share the exact same gospel with those need it most and serve needy people with the love the true gospel creates in us.

“So that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.”

Messages in this Series

01. To the Churches in Galatia
02. Turning to a Different Gospel
03. Preaching the Faith He Once Tried to Destroy

23 Years

All other things to their destruction draw,

  Only our love hath no decay;

This, no to-morrow hath, nor yesterday;

Running it never runs from us away,

But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.

- John Donne, The Anniversary

"Resisting Gossip" Now Available in Russian! Противостоять сплетням.

Rejoice with me!

The good folks from CLC Belarus have translated our little book into the Russian language and made it available to the Russian-speaking world.

It's so exciting to see it in yet another script and yet another language. I can't hardly wait to hold a copy in my own hands.

May the Lord use Противостоять сплетням to further His kingdom and help followers of Christ to win the war of the wagging tongue.

And here's yet another "first." CLC Belarus has dubbed and subtitled the original trailer into Russian, as well. Thanks to Third Brother Films for creating the short film in the first place and giving CLC permission to translate it across the globe.

Yellow-Orange Fly Agaric Mushroom